A. J. Jacobs and The Year of Living Biblically

A.J. Jacobs is a funny and provocative writer. Much of his stuff has appeared in Esquire, New York Magazine and he's been a frequent contributor to Weekend Edition on NPR. In his book The Know-It All, Jacobs chronicled his determination to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from cover to cover. In The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, Jacobs, who grew up in a very secular family (he says he's Jewish in much the same way as The Olive Garden is Italian) tells the often funny, often compelling story of his effort to live an entire calendar year following the Bible as literally as possible. It is a great read! And he treats his subject matter with great respect and his quest to understand and follow the Bible as literally as possible is both hilarious and eye-opening.

How do we take these ancient texts, stories, songs, memories, prophecies seriously without declaring that they are completely historical accounts? How can we take the "goal" of certain ritual behaviors seriously without embracing the cultural practice? If I think it's ok to eat a well-cooked pork chop (there's a rule against that), or if I simply don't like to iron and therefore buy and wear mostly cotton shirts with just a bit of polyester thrown in so I don't have to (there's a rule against wearing clothes of mixed fabrics), what keeps me from ignoring the rule about "loving the LORD my God with all my heart and mind and soul and strength?"

And if we are free to pick and choose (obviously I think we are, at least to some extent) just what are our criteria for picking and choosing? My guess it has something to do with "loving the LORD my God with all my heart and mind and soul and strength and my neighbor as myself," but that's my guess. What's yours?

Here is a link to a brief (15 minutes or so) presentation Jacobs gave about his year of living biblically. Depending on your computer system, you may have to cut and paste the link into your browser. Watching and listening is well worth your time.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/a_j_jacobs_year_of_living_biblically.html

Getting Over Ourselves

Thomas Moore (not Thomas "one- O" More, who wrote Utopia and had his head removed by King Henry VIII) is a former monk and a former psychology professor, and the author of more than a dozen well received books about the relationship between what most of us would call something like "psychological" or "emotional" wholeness or wellness and what most of us would call "spiritual" wholeness or wellness. In his 2002 book The Soul's Religion: Cultivating a Profoundly Spiritual Way of Life, he argues (pretty persuasively, I think) that if we can just get over ourselves (my phrase -- he would more likely say something like "breaking through the anxiety of the ego") we have an opportunity to approach something that could best be described by the word "holy."

To get the whole argument, you really should read the book, or anything else that he has written (some of which you can find at careofthesoul.net), but here are some "bullets" from The Soul's Religion to hopefully get our juices flowing:

...We become most who we are when we allow the spirit to dismember us, unsettling our plans and understandings, remaking us from our very foundations.

...one of the many definitions of"religion"..."a constructive means for being open to the influence of mystery."

...Avoiding life in the name of pure spirit may look like religion, but it is defense against God...God is to be found in the thick of life, or not at all.

...God is as much in the mess as in the beauty.

...Religion in general is the most intelligent and least rational way of making sense of life.

...I don't want my intuition to eclipse other kinds of intelligence, but to compliment them. In matters of meaning and values, though, I put more faith in the nonrational. Nonrational is not the same as irrational.

...You can't get it perfect every time, but you can certainly be intelligent and inspired simultaneously.

...Personally, I am wary of mass enthusiasms

(from The Soul's Religion: Cultivating a Profoundly Spiritual Way of Life (New York: HarperCollins, 2002)

More about "the journey"

I have a friend and colleague who serves our United Church of Christ on the national level who has expressed his discomfort with the images of "pilgrimage" and "journey." He says he thinks it gives a blank check of sorts to those who are afraid of commitment, those who think that setting measurable goals is too "limiting," and those who are simply uninterested in getting things done.
Sometimes (his argument would be "most times") when people talk about "my experience" or "my pilgrimage" or "my journey" people may well be saying "I'm in process," or "I'm not willing to make a commitment," or "I simply don't really want to think about these things in any depth or detail."

I almost completely disagree with him about this. Like Yvette Flunder argued in the video we watched the other night, I think God's intention for and relationship with us become clearer and deeper as we imagine God being with us "on the way," and as we relinquish our need to defend at all costs our long-held ideas about how things should be, and where things should go, and how things should ultimately turn out.

None of that means that our behavior, or thinking, or prayer is aimless, goal-less, willy-nilly or non-intentional. Quite the opposite is true. Long ago, in his little book Intimacy, Father Henri Nouwen shared this from one his college students that talks about a different kind of destination for the kind of journey we'll be talking about:

I hope that I will always be for each person what that person needs me to be.
I hope that each person's death diminishes me, but fear of my own will never diminish my life.
I hope that my love for those I like will never lessen my love for those whom I do not.
I hope that another person's love for me will never be a measure of my love for that other.
I hope that every person will accept me as I am, but that I never will.
I hope that I will always ask forgiveness from others, but will never need to be asked for my own.
I hope that I will always recognize my limitations, but that I will construct none.
I hope that loving will always be my goal, but that love will never be my idol.
I hope that every person will always have hope.

Getting Ready for Session One

Here is something to jump-start our thinking for our first session next Tuesday...

The focus of this session is to try to think about a faithful life as more like a journey than a destination. The introduction to Living the Questions puts it this way:

People know that at its core, Christianity has something good to offer the human race. At the same time, many have a sense that they are alone in being a "thinking" Christian, and that "savaging" Christianity is a hopeless task...On any authentic spiritual journey, asking the hard questions is not only permitted, but necessary! What we learn along the way through difficulties and disequilibrium, mistakes and challenges, discoveries and unlearnings, is the the process is what's important. The unanswerable questions asked in the company of fellow seekers along the way become a central part of the process of the deepening quest, the broadening understanding, and the journey beyond our otherwise limited horizons. (from An Invitation to Journey, Living the Questions, (c) 2007)

Starting the Journey

Welcome to the blog for our new faith exploration journey!

Here's how our group is going to work.

First, those of us in the area covenant together to meet face to face once a month, on the 4th Tuesday of each month, beginning on February 24, 2009. We'll start at 6:30 PM, and end at 8 PM. Each gathering will include a "check in" time to get us started, acquainted, and back in touch with one another, an "input time" that will focus mostly on a new "Living the Questions" series that we'll partner with some Bible study and other tools, and a "journaling" assignment designed to keep us engaged with our journey between our meeting times.

Second, we also covenant together to check in on this site at least weekly. The discussion here will be aimed at continuing and enhancing our conversation between meetings. I will post something (a biblical reflection, some ideas for further thought, or some other related item) at least once a week to attempt to keep the fires burning, and the rest of the group is free to comment, either in response to what's posted, or what we took away from our last meeting, or our reaction to what someone else has posted. Everyone is free, of course, to post nothing at all, but we have all agreed to check in at least once a week to see what others are thinking. At our meeting on the 24th, we'll show everyone how this will work.

There are a few folks from our church family who are at some distance but who want to be part of the conversation. Our intention is to invite them to share the experience with us as much as they can.

Looking forward to sharing this journey with you!

Rob